Posted by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Rev. Joseph Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr., delivered the benediction at the inaugural ceremony. Below is a transcription of his address, provided by CQ Transcriptwire: God of our weary years, god of our silent tears, thou, who has brought us thus far […]

Posted by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson The following is a transcript of the inaugural poem recited by Elizabeth Alexander, as provided by CQ transcriptions. Praise song for the day. Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others’ eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. […]

Posted by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson REMARKS OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA Inaugural Address, Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Washington, D.C. My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Good riddance to bad rubbish. Let their names and their words be erased from the world’s memory for eternity — except in the event of their prosecution for war crimes and offenses against the Constitution.

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Pushing the wheelchair of civil rights legend Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, on March 4, 2007, Barack Obama marched over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. He was part of an outpouring of activists commemorating the forty-second anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” a historic moment in the civil rights battle. “If you had […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Below is Pete Souza’s official portrait of the man who will become our President at noon on Tuesday. I think it’s wonderful, but I wish Barack didn’t feel it was necessary to wear a flag pin on his lapel. No one who has not held public office (and quite a few […]